Wednesday, December 8.  3:45 AM.  My cell phone goes off.  I groggily turn over to flip it off and try to go back to sleep.

3:46 AM.  My cell phone goes off again.  I resist the urge to throw it across the room.  I set the alarm.  I should probably heed it.  I somehow manage to roll out of bed and walk over to turn on my computer.  After a few restless minutes waiting for it to login, I navigate my way over to Ustream.  Why on earth am I up at this ungodly hour?  Well, Utada Hikaru announced her intention to go on hiatus at the end of this year.  She decided she would go all out on her professional career before that happened.  While it’s morning here, it’s night over there, and the powers that be have decided to stream her farewell concert over the Internet and to theatres all over Japan.  What, you think I would miss this?

Now, if you’ve never attended a live concert before, there’s big difference between being there in person and watching it on a computer screen.  For one, you can’t “feel” the music.  I’m actually serious.  Sound waves do have a force.  I recall at the MELL concert from 2009, even the floor would mildly vibrate on the hard hits of the guitars and drums.  Secondly, you really lack the energy you can get from the crowds.  It’s one thing to sit in a chair by yourself watching a performance, it is quite another to be surrounded by a few thousand people who are also interested.  In addition, you have technical glitches.  I think Ustream did an admirable job of keeping their services going, considering the viewership peaked out at about 100000 viewers.

Enough, let’s get on to the actual concert.  The first portion of her performance was more of a formal affair.  Utada descends from the ceiling on a platform garbed in a poofy dress with a side-skirt.  From my understanding, it’s similar to one she wore on her 2006 tour.  In addition to her techno core, she’s got a string octet backing her for the first eight songs.   Naturally, most of the songs she sings for this set are softer.  She kicks off with one of her new singles, Goodbye Happiness, which seems oddly appropriate for the concert.  She then immediately moves into Traveling, one of my favorite songs, and as upbeat as we get for a while.  Perhaps the best piece is another new single Hymn a Lamour, which she sings with only piano accompaniment.  She then sits at the piano herself to play Sakura Drops, which is also a beautiful song.  Then she and the string section slowly sink into the stage, and the techno crew starts playing Eclipse while we wait for the second half to begin.

When Utada comes back, she’s casualed out a bit into a simpler tip and pants.  She’s also brought two guitarists and a set of drums with her.  It’s time to get more into her rock inspired songs, and she starts off with Passion.  All throughout this set, it feels like she’s got a lot more energy, and the crowd’s gotten more into it to match.  The energy really takes off when she starts playing Show Me Love, which is perhaps the hardest piece I’ve ever heard from her.  A little later she’s got Boku wa Kuma, which is one of the cutest songs I know, and she is acting all upbeat and goofy while singing it.  Immediately after this she goes to play on the piano again, and the audience gets a little laugh when she can’t manage to fix the mic stand for her singing.  Toward the end of her main set, she sings perhaps her best known song, Hikari, and it’s easily the strongest performance of the night.  She finishes off with Nijiiro Basu, and again disappears from the stage.

Of course, this is Hikki, and this is her farewell concert, she’s not going to go away without an encore.  Come back she does, for a three song setlist.  She’s casualed out even more as well.  Now she’s wearing a Kuma shirt and a pair of rolled up jeans.  Tonight is actually the 30^th anniversary of John Lennon’s death, and as tribute she sings Across the Universe.  Honestly, I don’t think she could have picked a better song for the night, and she nails it perfectly.  Then the entire band pops up to play Can’t Wait Til’ Christmas.  She spends a little time introducing everyone who has backed her on this wonderful night.  They finish by playing Time Will Tell, a fitting song to end on in light of her hiatus.  Afterward, she takes a slow lap around the stage to the applause of her adoring fans.  Then she walks across the platform to the theatre exit, stops to give them one last goodbye, then heads right out the door.

I feel like Utada has been a consummate performer throughout her career.  The numbers really speak for themselves.  She has three albums in the Top-10 all time list in Japan, and 12 singles reached number one on the Oricon Singles chart.  She managed to build a massively successful career without having to resort to a lot of sex appeal like some artists.  She even generated interest in the West with her theme song contributions to the Kingdom Hearts series.  Utada never pigeonholed herself into any single genre.  She could perform her slow, moving ballads just as well as her techno and rock influenced pieces.  She even has a goofy side, which is most evident in the video for Goodbye Happiness.  Her music has touched the lives of a lot of people, I’m sure, and now she can take a well deserved rest.  I’m looking forward to whatever work she does in the future, even if it’s no longer music.  Take care, Hikki, we’ll miss you.

Screencaps courtesy of Plastic Candy.  Give them some love. :]